Thomas Voeckler takes a rainy Brabantse Pijl alone

French Tour hero attacks with 32km to go and holds off a disorganised chase group

The irrepressible Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) finally took his first victory of 2012, in a rainy edition of Brabantse Pijl, after attacking alone with 32km to go and soloing to the finish. The former French champion quickly caught and passed Daniel Schorn (NetApp), the sole survivor of a three-man race-long breakaway, and managed to hold off the attentions of a seven-man chase group that was unable to organise itself into a cohesive chase.

“I'm very happy,” said Voeckler afterwards. “This circuit is very tiring. I didn’t mean to go alone but it happened like that.

“I expected that the group to catch me but I gave it my all and it paid off,” he added.

The chase group of Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing), Dries Devenyns (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Jelle Vanendert (Lotto-Belisol), Alex Howes (Garmin-Barracuda), Laurens Ten Dam (Rabobank), Oscar Freire (Katusha) and Pieter Serry (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator) was just a few seconds behind Voeckler as he attacked, but with no cooperation the hero of last year’s Tour de France was able to build a lead of more than a minute as he crossed the line with just one lap of the 12.8km finishing circuit remaining.

His advantage continued to grow in the closing kilometres, despite Fabio Duarte (Colombia-Deportes) managing to bridge across to, then attack the chase group. The Colombian was chased down by Freire and Serry in the final kilometre however, with the three-time World champion - and three-time Brabantse Pijl winner between 2005 and 2007 - easily winning the sprint for third.

The cobbles of the north begin to give way to the hills of the south

The 196km race would take place mostly in Flanders, but would pass intermittently into Walloon Brabant and the French-speaking half of the country; explaining its also officially being known as of Flèche Brabaçonne. With it’s hilly profile, the race marked the shift between the Cobbled Classics of Flanders and northern France, and the hilly ‘Ardennes’ ones of the Wallonia and southern Netherlands; with some cobbles in the finishing circuit however, particularly on the climb of Hertstraat, the course offered something to both the hardmen of the north, and the climbers of the south.

The peloton set off from the start in Leuven, stone’s throw from the country’s capital, Brussels, under sunny skies, but the good weather was not to last long, and gave way to heavy rain before too long.

After early solo attempts from Schorn, and Marco Bandiera (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), an unsuccessful move from Mathieu Sprick (Argos-Shimano), Matthias Brändle (NetApp) and Sander Armee (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator), and another solo jump from William Clark (Champion System), Schorn finally managed to get away with Maxim Belkov (Katusha) and Artem Ovechkin (RusVelo) after 32km. The three riders were immediately able to build a lead over the peloton, which stretched to 5’08” by the 63km point.

As the trio entered the hill zone in the middle of the course’s long loop, its advantage began to fall a little. On the Alsemberg, where the race took in a small loop before retracing its steps back towards the finishing circuit at Overijse. It was down to 3’45” at the race’s halfway point, as BMC Racing and Rabobank took control of the peloton.

With 75km the sun began to come out again, with the gap down to 2’50”, and as they entered the finishing circuit with 63km to go it was 2’06”; as the Hagaard climb began, Ovechkin was unable to go with his two companions and was left behind.

BMC Racing starts to assert itself with the defending champion

BMC Racing increased the pace on the climb two minutes behind, putting a number of riders in trouble at the back of the peloton, with Andy Schleck (RadioShackNissan) among those to lose contact; the Luxembourg rider had crashed on a roundabout shortly before, and was clearly not happy in the conditions.

2011 winner Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing) began to show himself on the Hertstraat, along with Van Avermaet, as Luis León Sánchez (Rabobank) saw his race effectively end with a puncture on the cobbled surface.

As the front of the peloton began to split, Omega Pharma-Quick Step’s Gerald Ciolek and Devenyns began to lift the pace on behalf of Jérôme Pineau. Gilbert led on to the IJskelderlaan however, but he was countered by Devenyns, then Pineau attacked and forced a small gap as he crested the top.

On the descent however, the Frenchman suffered possibly the first bit of bad luck experienced by Omega Pharma-Quick Step this spring, and he slid off on a wet corner. A group of four riders, made up of Voeckler, Michael Matthews (Rabobank), Howes and Pieter Jacobs (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator) promptly jumped clear.

Schorn escaped Belkov on the Schavei, and was ten seconds clear of the Russian as he crossed the line with four laps and 51km to go. The group of four was 1’30” behind Schorn as it crossed the line, with Devenyns leading the rest over just ten seconds later; they were soon caught, and Gilbert, Van Avermaet and Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) all began to assert themselves but were unable to get clear.

Kévin Reza (Europcar) attacked and managed to get away alone. Ciolek led a group in pursuit of the lone Frenchman, but found himself sliding off on the vey same corner that had claimed Pineau; Elia Favilli (Farnese Vini-Selle Italia) continued alone, but was passed by an attack from Sprick.

The break is almost over so Voeckler starts a new one

Across the line with three laps to go, Schorn’s lead was down to exactly a minute over Reza, who was quickly catching Belkov. Sprick was just 20 seconds behind Reza, with the peloton another ten seconds behind him.

Federico Canuti (Liquigas-Cannondale) began to wind up the pace of the decimated peloton and made short work of catching both Favilli and Reza early in the lap. The group of no more than 30 riders was gaining on Belkov now and, with 32km to go it had cut Schorn’s lead to a minute.

The climbers all came forward on the Hertstraat once more, with Jan Bakelandts (RadioShack-Nissan) leading the way. Voeckler attacked again over the top though, and got a few seconds clear.

The Frenchman was pursued by Van Avermaet, Devenyns, Vanendert, Howes, Ten Dam, Oscar Freire and Pieter Serry. Most of the big teams were represented, and the break appeared to be decisive; Liquigas-Cannondale was a notable absentee, but the Italian team’s ambitions were effectively ended when the corner that had taken down Pineau and Ciolek also claimed Sagan.

On the Schavei with 27km to go, Voeckler caught and passed Schorn; the exhausted Austrian was soon also pulled back by the chasers, but he managed to hang on to them. The hero of last year’s Tour de France crossed the line with two laps to go 23 seconds clear of the eight-man chasing group, and the peloton was a further 24 seconds behind.

With eight riders present, the chase group was apparently too large to cooperate properly and Voeckler’s lead was beginning to grow. With 22km to go it was up to 42 seconds, although the peloton was also drifting backwards with nobody willing to chase.

On the Hertstraat for the penultimate time, with Voeckler 47 seconds clear, an injection of pace from Howes managed to shed Schorn, but made little progress on Voeckler, who was making all sorts of facial expressions to the camera bikes up ahead. With 15km to go, the Frenchman’s lead rose to more than a minute, as the peloton began to close in on the seven chasers.

One lap to go and still nobody’s chasing Voeckler

As he took the bell with just 12.8km to go, Voeckler’s advantage was up to 1’10”; Fabio Duarte (Colombia-Deportes) tried to bridge across, as the peloton was less than 30 seconds behind the chase group now.

Occasionally one of the seven-man chase group would accelerate, but there was still no cohesion and the pace soon fizzled out. This lack of real pace saw Duarte join with 10km to go; the peloton was still hovering at around 30 seconds back, but there were enough teammates of those up ahead to prevent the gap from closing.

The rain began to fall heavily again now, but Voeckler had a minute and a half’s lead with less than half a lap to go. Devenyns tried to escape the chase group shortly after the top of the Hertstraat, but his half-hearted effort was soon closed down. Only a crash could stop Voeckler now, but - following the IJskelderlaan - he was heading towards the corner that had claimed Pineau, Ciolek and Sagan, and the rain had made the dried roads wet again. As the chasers neared the top of the climb Duarte attacked and got away.

With plenty of time in hand Voeckler could afford to take his time, tiptoeing around the treacherous, sweeping corners of the descent, and thankfully Duarte and the rest of the group were equally careful. Howes escaped them as they hit the bottom however, chasing the second spot on the podium; Voeckler had the top step sewn up now though, and shook hands with directeur sportif Jean-Rene Bernadeau in the team car as he began the final climb of the Schavei.

Theatrical to the end, Voeckler blew kisses to the crowd, then puffed his cheeks to the finish line photographers as he crossed the line to take his first victory of the season.

Behind him, the chasers had caught Howes, and Freire and Serry were closing on on Duarte. The duo caught the Colombian as he hit the finishing straight and the three-time World champion made short work of the sprint for second.